relative clause

American  

noun

relative clauses plural

1. a subordinate clause introduced by a relative pronoun, adjective, or adverb, either expressed or deleted, especially such a clause modifying an antecedent, as who saw you in He's the man who saw you or (that ) I wrote in Here's the letter (that ) I wrote.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• relative clauses
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

relative clause

The linguists soon became suspicious about his Taensa grammar: The verbs seemed too regular, the relative clause structure too European.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2019

As we have noted often, a relative clause like this is plural, describing the group of which Bona Sun is one example.

From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2015

These two modifying constructions — a participle phrase and a relative clause — are not parallel and so should not be linked by “and.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2014

The writer in fact meant to say all of the bishops had been accused, so needed to insert a comma after “bishops” to introduce a non-restrictive relative clause:

From The Guardian ● Sep. 4, 2014

Now look at the second tree, where the relative clause has been put in the passive.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker